standstill
Americannoun
-
standstills
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of standstill
First recorded in 1695–1705; noun use of verb phrase stand still
Explanation
When anything comes to a standstill, it stops moving, either literally coming to a motionless stop, or ceasing to make any progress. If you and your brother try to agree on what kind of pizza to order, but your negotiations come to a standstill, it means that neither one of you will budge or compromise, and you've reached a dead end. During rush hour on a busy highway, traffic often comes to a standstill — it simply stops. This "cessation of movement" meaning came first.
Vocabulary lists containing standstill
"All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury
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"The Experiment" and "The World Is in Their Hands"
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The First State of Being
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
On Thursday, Tesla said the Roadster was able to accelerate from a standstill to 60 miles an hour in less than a second.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Home sales are already in a slump, and rising mortgage rates will likely bring things to a standstill.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
With shipping at a standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of the world's oil and gas, the Panama Canal has become a fallback route for energy shipments.
From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026
What will it mean if even in good times growth in the number of people with salaries to spend is at standstill?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Their progress down the river was at a standstill.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
They are noteworthy for their enormous scale, geometric precision and astronomical breadth and accuracy, such as encoding all eight lunar standstills over an 18.6-year cycle.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 19, 2023
After a summer of standstills, some relief may finally be on the way for traffic-weary visitors to Yosemite National Park.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2023
Measures could include debt standstills and sharing World Bank-I.M.F. debt sustainability analysis with all creditor nations simultaneously.
From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2023
She also wants debt service standstills during restructuring negotiations and an expansion of the framework's remit as many countries holding the bulk of at-risk debt are not poor enough to currently qualify for relief.
From Reuters ● Feb. 17, 2022
Her brain stammered; seemed to fly loose; came to sudden standstills.
From Tatterdemalion by John Galsworthy
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
